The 2008 Movie Genre of the Month Club

[ZapRowsdower]

The Pride of the Yankees (1942, Sam Wood)

The charming, funny, and ultimately tragic true story of Lou Gehrig, a true legend of Baseball, whose life was tragically cut short but an unknown disease. Gary Cooper is wonderful (even if at early scenes he seems a little too old for the part - the role ends up growing into him), and Teresa Wright almost brings tears to your eyes. And it was nice to see the real Babe Ruth amongst other Yankees playing themselves. It was a stunning tribute to a remarkable man, and one of the greatest sports films ever made. 9/10... for now.

[Heineken Skywalker]

MIRACLE (2004)

Kurt Russell in another underrated performance as Herb Brooks. Brooks was the coach who led the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to the gold, in an incredible upset over the Russian team, who were considered unstoppable.
The hockey action is done so well throughout the film that a couple of times I forgot I was watching a movie and found myself getting into "the games". I can't pay it a higher compliment than that.

8.5/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

An update. The scores for this month so far.

August: SPORTS MOVIES

Heineken Skywalker = 7
Slayrrr666 = 3
ZapRowsdower = 2
LivingDeadGirl = 2

[slayrrr666]

Friday Night Lights-2004
I was going into this one with a loaded deck: I hate football and I don't watch a lot of drama, if any at all, so this one had a pretty huge hill to overcome. Not that much of what happened really made me feel otherwise, just very little of what happened kept my interest. Unlike the others in the past, where I could count on the game being played to keep me into the movie, I just felt the football action was very dull and lacking, probably a result of the general air the film had. I can now say I saw it, but still didn't really care about it.
4.5/10

Radio-2003
Again, I'm going into a football film with a lot of drama elements, and then the length of it really got to me as well. I don't need to keep seeing scenes of him going around with his disability, I got it; just get on with the film already. That's one of the biggest issues with the film, as well as, like FNL, the football action in here is really lacking. It could've been due to the fact that there's more scenes of them practicing rather than going into the game, it could've been the air of "I-could-care-less-about-what-happens" that this one has, but whatever reason, I can also say that now I saw this one as well.
4.5/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

THE CHAMP (1979)

John Voight plays a former boxing champ, now a horse trainer, who is a single parent raising his young son (Ricky Schroder). Voight drinks and gambles too much, but is able to clean up his act long enough to train for a big comeback match.
To complicate things further, the boy's mom (Faye Dunaway), who left seven years before, is suddenly back in their lives.
A real tearjerker (Schroder cries almost everytime he's on screen) and the ending is especially sad, but Voight does really good work here and the end boxing match is well done and pretty exciting.
Does "double-duty" as a sports movie. Not just boxing, but the main characters own a racehorse, so we also get one important scene at the racetrack.

6.5/10

BREAKING AWAY (1979)

Dennis Christopher plays an Indiana teen obsessed with bicycle racing and training for the Little 500 bicycle race.
When not cycling, he hangs out with his three buddies (Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern and Jackie Earl Haley), tries to stay out of the way of the local college snobs, immerses himself in Italian culture, and woos a college girl who thinks he really is Italian.
Other than the big bike race at the end, the highlight of the film for me was the father-son relationship of the main character and his dad, which is really funny. Christopher speaks Italian and listens to opera, much to the chagrin of his father, hilariously played by Paul Dooley.

7.5/10

[ZapRowsdower]

The Natural (1984, Barry Levinson)

How could I have allowed myself to miss this one for so long? This is a classic sports movie with one of the most satisfying endings of all time. Flawless direction which kinda makes you wonder what's happened to Barry Levinson as of late, and Robert Redford was amazing. And Randy Newman's score was fantastic. 9/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

Aug 14, 2008 1:29:56 GMT -5 ZapRowsdower said:

The Natural (1984, Barry Levinson)

How could I have allowed myself to miss this one for so long?

That's pretty much what I thought when I finally saw this one this month too. But that's really the main goal of this whole Genre of the Month thing. See some movies you haven't seen before or normally wouldn't watch.

THE SANDLOT (1993)

Scotty, the new kid who moves into a neighborhood with his mom and Yankees-loving stepdad (Karen Allen and Dennis Leary), soon meets up with the other neighbor kids, who spend the summer playing baseball in the local sandlot. Problem is, Scotty has no baseball skills at all and (Gasp!) doesn't even know who The Great Bambino is! The best player, Bennie, takes him under his wing, and soon Scotty is a decent player and is accepted by the others.
Over the course of the film, besides playing lots of baseball, the kids hang out in their treehouse, swim at the public pool where they have a run-in with the hottie lifeguard, take on a snooty rival baseball team and have to retrieve a Babe Ruth-signed baseball from the junkyard next to the sandlot. Problem is, it's guarded by a mythical monster-like dog.
Besides the main characters being a group of young boys and their summer "adventure", the movie does however follow many of the devices used in STAND BY ME pretty closely. The story is narrated by the adult version of one of the boys, at the end of the movie we get a recap of what later became of each of the boys, and there is even a "group vomit" scene. But the movie is well done, the script is good and the kids are well-cast and funny.
A little gem.

8/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

ALL THE RIGHT MOVES (1983)

Tom Cruise as a high school football player trying to get a college scholarship so he can leave a slowly dying Pennsylvania steel town. Craig T. Nelson plays his coach, who is also trying to get a job coaching for a college.
Kind of predictable and nothing I haven't seen before.

5/10

[ZapRowsdower]

Shaolin Soccer (2001, Stephen Chow)

Over-the-top, hilarious, and original. I loved it. 9/10

[slayrrr666]

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story-2005
The true enjoyment of this one is going to depend on how funny you find people constantly getting hit in the scotum funny. I find that to be insanely funny, so this one was a good time. Hits the usual cliches in these movies note-for-note, which again makes for some fun times, but the familiarity factor does work against it at times. Like I said, the majority of those will find this one to be funny depending on the mentioned activity. As for me, it's funny and made me laugh, which is what I want in a film.
8.5/10

Blades of Glory-2006
This one certainly wasn't bad, but for some reason, I have a hard time thinking highly of this one. There's some good stuff in here, as the opening scating scene, the first tandom skating in the Olympic games is hilarious with all the different moves done for women playing out for men and then the dominatrix revelation being really good, but then there's an unknown element out there that just doesn't make this one hold up for me. Maybe it's that I don't find Will Farrell all that funny, or too many jokes went over my head and left long periods of dullness, or even the stupidity of the premise, but whatever, this one just doesn't stay with me like I thought it would.
7/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

THE BOXER (1997)

Daniel Day-Lewis gives another strong performance, this time as a boxer (He trained for 3 years preparing for this role!) and ex-IRA member, who has been released from a Belfast prison after fourteen years.
He decides to start boxing again, even starting a gym to train others, and to try to avoid the politics and bloodshed of his past. There's also a subplot about his relationshhip with the wife (Emily Watson) of another IRA member who is still in prison.
The first half is pretty slow, but it picks up in the second half.

6/10

[ZapRowsdower]

White Men Can't Jump (1992, Ron Shelton)

A very funny high-intensity basketball movie. Again, I asked... what the Hell happened to Wesley Snipes? The guy used to know how to entertain! He and Woody Harrelson played off each other so well. And I loved Rosie Perez, too. Very entertaining, but it runs just a little too long for my tastes. Only a little. 8/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

REMEMBER THE TITANS (2000)

Another one I'd never seen before.
Inspirational true story of Coach Herman Boone (Dennzel Washington), who in 1971, was hired as the new head coach, replacing the beloved white coach, Bill Yoast (Will Patton), at a newly integrated Virginia high school. Yoast begrudgingly became the assistant coach to Boone. Together they put together an integrated team of players who despite their differences, learned to get along, became a great team, and even brought the community together.
Despite the sports movie cliches, I really got caught up in this one.

8.5/10

[slayrrr666]

Shaolin Soccer-2001
Zap also saw this one recently, and called it over-the-top, hilarious and original. Totally agree on that end, as the soccer games were awesome, the beginning is truly funny and pretty wild, and the whole thing comes off as something that seems logical and original. Martial arts used to play soccer? Briliant and a clever idea, and it allows for a bunch of fun, which this one is.
9/10

[ZapRowsdower]

Rocky III (1982, Sylvester Stallone)

Much like part 2, I liked this one a lot better than I thought I would. Stallone didn't perfect his ability to direct a movie until Rocky Balboa came out a couple years ago, but this, I thought was passable. Doesn't hold a candle to part one, but it was entertaining. Could have done without the unintentional homosexual subtext between Rocky and Apollo, but "Eye of the Tiger" is still one of cinema's most recognizable tunes. And Clubber Lang made an interesting, if somewhat cartoonish villain. But it was nice to see Mr. T in his first role, complete with his first usage of "I pity the fool!" 8/10